I forgot to take a before shot, but that is pretty much what it looked like.

Black. Â Plastic. Â Man Cave style.

I bought it on sale because I needed a mirror, but I never quite liked it very much.

And it definitely didn’t fit in with ANYTHING.

Well, today I went to work on it.

Â I started with one coat of Home Plate from American Paint Co.

TIP: When painting a mirror I always use computer paper instead of painters tape, it’s the lazy way but it works better for me, I can never get the tape to go on straight and you can usually wedge the paper under the sides so that there isn’t any paint seepage.

After I painted the entire thing, I gave the middle groove a second coat

Next I went around the outer edge, using a dry brush with Copper Paint.

I did it pretty splotchy, I want some white and black to show through.

I decided to paint the inner edge with Silver, I had some Martha Stewart Metallic Glaze Â and that did the trick.

Then I took some Turquoise Paint and dry brushed it over the Copper.

(color: Beach Glass by American Paint co.)

Bronze Dry Brushed on the sides of the Mirror.

Are you keeping track, that’s silver, copper, bronze

Did I say Two Tone? Â I meant Three.

Three Toned Mirror.

I then went around the white area in the middle and rubbed in color that was left on all my brushes.

Since they were dry brushes, there wasn’t much paint, but I focused the turquoise in the corners and some bronze to darken up the white a bit.

(You can tell this isn’t an exact science right?)

I also used a rag and wiped away the paint in some areas to expose some of the black plastic.

It’s hard for me to capture a photo of the different tones in the mirror.

Here is a shot with lighting where you can see the different paint colors.

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Okay, so I don’t know about you,
but finding gifts that children can make can sometimes be troublesome.

Especially, when you wait until a week before Christmas to get started.

Ahem.

Anyway, if you have a child who is interested in making gifts for family members,
next week is a great time to put the Christmas break to good use.

Especially when they can create something like this:

My nine year old made these.
Trust me, they are simple!
And Cheap!

This would be a great project for young tweeny boppers too!

So here’s the deal:

Materials:Wood
Stain
Paint
Sandpaper

And here’s how to do all that on the cheap:

1. Visit Home Depot and head to the back of the lumber aisle. They should have a discount bin, where you can snag a board like this for practically free. Actually 51 cents, but if your kids flash a pearly grin, and ask adorable questions like, “What kind of wood is this?,” and “Do I need to sand with the grain?” then you might just score them for free.

NOTE: I have only seen the discount bin empty one time. You may not score the same size board as we did but there is usually always something to work with. Try to take the STRAIGHTEST board with no SPLITS.

2. Cut your board. HD will do this for FREE! or if you have a saw at home, that works too. We cut our boards at about 14 inches. We got FIVE signs out of one board! SCORE!

3. Paint your background color on your board. Use a lighter color paint, as we will darken it up a bit a little later. (Sissy’s signs were painted white and light blue to begin with.) TIP: While you’re at Home Depot, check their paint department for the “Mess Ups” rack. I often find a small tub of paint for 50 cents!

4. Choose your word. Pick a font that is crisp and easy to paint. Print it at a size that will fit your board.

5. Follow this chalk tutorial for transfering your word to your board. Or use graphite paper, we’re cheap and there are ALWAYS little chunks of sidewalk chalk around our house.

6. Paint your word. This is the longest part, go slow, don’t fret over mistakes, we can sand them off…and we want it to look shabby anyway right? We have a basic paint brush set from Wally World that included a slanted tip paint brush….this helps quite a bit.

7. Shabby your board up a bit. Use sandpaper to rough up your word. Hammer in some dents. Rough up the edges…ect.

Don’t be afraid to take out some big gouges!
Where ever there is bare wood showing, the stain will soak in.

8. Use a wood stain over the paint. This is the most expensive part of the project. Wood stain is about $8 at Home Depot, but it will last you a lifetime! You literally use a dab of this stain for each board. I love Minwax Jacobean for most projects.

To stain your board: Wear gloves, dab an old rag into the can, and then wipe it over the whole project, let it set for a few moments, then wipe it off. Throw away your rags. (I read somewhere that staining rags can self ignite…and that is not good right? So toss them!)

Mom or Dad can do this part too, if you’re nervous about the kiddos handling such a noxious product.

9. Let it dry. We move ours indoors because it sets quicker. Afterwords you can spray a poly coat on if you like, this is just an extra step to protect the sign if say you needed to clean it for some reason. Not necessary, but if you have the spray anyway, give it a quick shot.

10. If you want to be fancy, hammer a hook or a picture holder into the back.

All Done!

Total Cost
$.51 wood
$8 stain
_________
$8.50

On Hand:
Sandpaper
Paint

$8.50 makes about 5 signs….so that’s about $1.70 per gift!

Not bad.

Maybe Mom can make a few too?

Now that I think of it,
This would be a great project for the entire family,
you could easily make words like JOY and Peace…

Stay tuned for some more shabby projects,
my camera is full of photos to share!

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Storage Crate
(Shanty 2 Chic)
This turned out HUGE and fits all of our floor pillows,
and even a couple of babies.

Fireside Bench
(Ana White)
Love this one! I still haven’t coated it with poly,
just enjoying the rustic look.

And finally my VERY FAVORITE project this month:

Framed Wall Maps
(Frame Tutorial via Shanty 2 Chic)
I cut my boards with my miter box and a hand saw, just like the tutorial above,
but I actually used this video tutorial from Kreg, for assembling the boards.
My frames were done in a few minutes.

The longest part was beating them up a bit and then waiting for the stain to dry.

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This one sits in the mud room.
And while I love how organized it is,
the white melamine board is a little too “cubical” for me.

Unfortunately, I’m not skilled enough yet to build my own,
(though I have someday plans)
But, I wondered if there wasn’t something that could be done to
personalize this thing a bit more until I figure out how to use a jigsaw.

So here’s what I came up with:

I used the same supplies as with the Mud Room Shelf,
and the wood is some scrap wood I got out of the cheap bin at Home Depot.

I just (hand) sawed it all to size and
used liquid nails to glue it to the top.

If I did it over again, I would go 1/2 larger so there would be a lip around the edges.

I also decided that I should do the stool, and that turned out super cute as well.

I tried to make it as shabby as I could.

I’m loving the way it looks in the laundry/mudroom,
makes me want to spend more time in there.

Sorta.

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I need to state that before I actually MADE this,
I spent THREE months trying to BUY this instead.

I needed a Mud Room Shelf,
and I had a small list of requirements:

I wanted one that was made out of REAL WOOD

This shelf had to be heavy duty.
Four kids.
Activities with crazy amounts of gear.
A gazillion winter jackets.
Maybe even a special place for my crazy heavy purse?
(seriously what ever happened to REAL WOOD?)

I also wanted LOTS of hooks.At least 6.
2 or 3 just isn’t going to cut it around here.
Ideally I’d have 12,
but I only have room for about 6,
so that is the magic number.

And of course I wanted it to MATCH. I adore shabby, rustic, and muted colors.
Too much color and not enough reflecting light just makes my head hurt.

So after months of searching with no luck,
I grudgingly went to my favorite DIY blog Shanty 2 Chic.
I was only hesitant because I’ve never actually “built” anything before.
(napkin holders in 8th grade shop class don’t count)

Isn’t it beautiful!
And the tutorial was SHORT and SIMPLE and I KNEW what most of the supplies were.

To make an already long story short:
I made two of them!

And it really wasn’t hard at all!(read: I spent ALL day struggling with this project, while my children ran rampant in the yard and by the time we came in for dinner they looked like starving chimney urchins and I made them eat their pizza in the bathtub.)

Super Easy.

So yeah, in all honesty:
My feet hurt.
My knees hurt.
I have a power drill blister.
I’m covered in paint.But I feel great because….

This is a piece of furniture.
And I made it!
And it only cost me about $55/shelf.FOR REAL WOOD PEOPLE.

It’s hard to tell in the pictures,
but these shelves are FIVE feet long and about TEN inches tall.
They are massive.

I love them to pieces. I loved the white shelf so much that I put it by the front door.
I cannot wait to decorate this each season!

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I have been drooling over all sorts of amazing pillows,
quietly “planning” to do them….SOME DAY.

I was waiting for the perfect weekend to start sewing.
a weekend in which I had nothing else to do,
when the laudry is all folded, and the windows are clean,
the children are HAPPILY playing together on the carpet.

But as the weeks passed,
I slowly realized that the day would NEVER come.

So amid huge towers of laundry, fingerprint windows,
and bickering children I dropped everything, got out
my sewing machine and went to work.

It seemed most simple, she posted lots of photos and measurements,
and I already had the pillow forms.

Also, just a side note that this is a Stash Buster project!
There are small amounts of fabric required so it’s great for using up left over fabric,
or to clear out those remnants you picked up on impluse from Joanns.

For some reason my first pillow came out a little tight.
On my second one I added another half inch to the length of the pattern as I seem to take liberty with my seam allowances.

Here is one next to my “store bought” pillows.

Not to SHABBY if I do say so myself!

My daughter was so impressed she gasped at how pretty they turned out.

(or perhaps in surprise that I was the one who sewed it. )

And the best thing about this pattern is that you can easily untie the sides
and change your pillow case whenever you like!

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But that’s okay, because it’s going to rescue my dresser from a classic craft fail.

And it’s super simple to use:

All you have to do is rub the birdy doo wax into the wood,
in all the areas you want a bit more shabby.

Which in my case is like the entire thing.

We are using gloves and doing this outside because,
the wax stinks…….not like birdy doo,
but like the kind of stuff that
will make you THINK you can FLY like a birdy.

And that is certainly not our intention this afternoon.

So here is a side by side shot of the drawers:

You can see the bottom two have been waxed.

The color is toned down just enough that it’s not giving me a headache anymore.

Looking much better,
tons more depth!

Here is the BEFORE and AFTER shot:

It’s hard to tell in the photo, but in person it makes a huge difference.

When you look closer you can see a whole new tone to the piece:

Before and After Close UP:

It’s just the color that I wanted!

I will be using birdy doo on EVERYTHING from now on!

Love it!

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Over the weekend I picked up a few shabby touches to spread around the house:

a plant stand.

a little bird.

a little nest.

some weeping.

some willow.

I love having new treasures to look at!

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I am a Christian mother of four, with over 13-years experience homeschooling in Southern Oregon. The resources and products I create are designed to keep the prep to a minimum while also bringing a little educational fun to your classroom